E-text prepared by Sankar Viswanathan, Suzanne Shell, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) RAVENSDENE COURT by J. S. FLETCHER New York Alfred A. Knopf MCMXXII Copyright, 1922, by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Published July, 1922 CONTENTS I THE INN ON THE CLIFF 9 II RAVENSDENE COURT 21 III THE MORNING TIDE 34 IV THE TOBACCO BOX 46 V THE NEWS FROM DEVONPORT 58 VI SECRET THEFT 71 VII YELLOWFACE 84 VIII WAS IT A WOMAN? 96 IX THE ENLARGED PHOTOGRAPH 108 X THE YELLOW SEA 120 XI THE FIVE CONCLUSIONS 133 XII NETHERFIELD BAXTER 145 XIII THE SPOILS OF SACRILEGE 157 XIV SOLOMON FISH 169 XV MR. JALLANBY--SHIP BROKER 181 XVI THE PATHLESS WOOD 193 XVII HUMFREY DE KNAYTHVILLE 206 XVIII THE PLUM CAKE 218 XIX BLACK MEMORIES 230 XX THE POSSIBLE REASON 242 XXI THE CHINESE GENTLEMAN 254 XXII RED DAWN 267 XXIII THE FOURTH CHINAMAN 279 XXIV THE SILK CAP 291 XXV CLEAR DECKS 304 RAVENSDENE COURT CHAPTER I THE INN ON THE CLIFF According to an entry in my book of engagements, I left London for Ravensdene Court on March 8th, 1912. Until about a fortnight earlier I had never heard of the place, but there was nothing remarkable in my ignorance of it, seeing that it stands on a remote part of the Northumbrian coast, and at least three hundred miles from my usual haunts. But then, towards the end of February, I received the following letter which I may as well print in full: it serves as a fitting and an explanatory introduction to a series of adventures, so extraordinary, mysterious, and fraught with danger, that I am still wondering how I, until then a man of peaceful and even dull life, ever came safely through them. "RAVENSDENE COURT, NEAR ALNWICK NORTHUMBERLAND February 24, 1912 "_Dear Sir_,